So, if you haven’t heard the news, being a gamer is now a full-fledged profession, and the gaming industry is massive- completely overtaking both the film and music industry combined. In 2017, it surpassed 110 billion worldwide revenue while the movie industry was less than half that at about 41 billion. Contributing factors to this stellar rise include the rise of social and mobile games, the huge popularity of platforms like Twitch and e-sporting events which can draw thousands. (By 2019, 427 million people worldwide will be watching e-Sports). Gaming is also one of the most popular categories on YouTube which certainly contributes to the rise of gaming influencers. In fact, the influencer with the most followers on any platform period is a gamer, Pewdie Pie – who made over 12 million last year.

With this in mind, we came up with our own list of gaming influencers to watch. Some are huge, but many of our choices are hidden gems who often perform better than the big guys when it comes to brand promotions. Girl gamers are nothing to sneeze at either – giving the dudes a serious run for their money.

OUR HIDDEN GEMS

1. Melonie Mac (over 1.5 million followers combined) .We’ve probably featured Melonie once or twice before in of our other blogs, but that just shows you how multi-talented she is. If you haven’t subscribed to her increasingly growing YouTube channel, you should, especially if you’re interested in all things gaming, tech, and having a lively personality to talk you through it. She’s also an avid Twitch streamer so be sure to catch her there.

2. Lasercorn (over 5 million followers combined).Originally from Ohio, but now residing in Los Angeles with his wife and son, Lasercorn started out as one of the 6 original members of Smosh Games. He now works with the comedy channel, Toaster Ghost and regularly streams on Twitch and Facebook Live as well! We’ve had the pleasure of working with him on campaigns for HP and Visine, and he’s always been a real pro. Most importantly, he’s just a really cool guy.

3. Schizophrenic Gamer (over 200k followers combined).Sometimes he also goes by ‘Bagelmon’ as suggested by his secondary YouTube channel’s name as well as his Twitch profile. He is without a doubt, wacky in his approach to showing people his video game skills.

Lachlan comes from Australia and is known worldwide for his fast-growing YouTube channel (over 5 million followers). Each video he posts pretty much guarantees to get at least 1 million views. He’s a super-talented young individual, and YES, he also plays quite a bit of Fortnite and Minecraft as well.

Her real name is Rachel, and she currently is based out of Los Angeles. Valykrae’s Twitch account has gained over 300,000 followers where fans can catch her playing popular games such as Fornite, Dark Souls III, Counter Strike, and many more. She’s also ranked as one of the top Fornite gamers in the country so you can definitely learn a thing or two from her streams.

6. Loserfruit (over 600k followers combined).
This Austrian gem is best known for her rad keyboard skills on games such as Fortnite, Overwatch, League of Legends and Call of Duty. She competes in various E-Leagues and has gained over half a million subscribers on her YouTube channel. Apart from being a gaming influencer, she can also be considered a lifestyle influencer based on a variety of posts on her growing Instagram profile.

Hailing from Austin, Texas, Ali Hassan, otherwise known as Sypher, is a professional Fortnight player and has been streaming videos on a regular basis since 2014. He has been a Twitch partner ever since he began making edited Runescape videos, and he is now one of the top For Honor gamers in the world. It’s evident Ali has a high preference for online multiplayer video games, and it shows by his accolades as a pro-gamer.

Jaryd Lazar’s (real name) Twitch account alone stands at 3 million followers, which shows you how serious he is about gaming. He specializes in shooter games, particularly Counter-Strike. You can catch him streaming on a regular basis from his place down in Colorado.

9. Terrible Tommy (over 5 million combined followers).
Tommy’s unique style of crazy and manic expressions make him a very popular character to many kids who watch YouTube for game play. He claims, “I used to be the World’s Worst gamer but now I’m the King!” He also has several channels that focus on other things apart from video games with the same type of delivery. You can check some of his channels below, and one of them is even a channel dedicated to Nerf Gun fights!

TOP TIER GAMERS

10. PewDiePie(over 100 million followers combined)

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Swedish native, PewDiePie, also known as Felix Kjellberg, has been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. If you’ve ever seen PewDiePie get sponsored by a company on one of his socials, you better believe they paid a TON of money for that shoutout. He’s also a philanthropist, having donated to organizations like WWF and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, though as you probably heard, he is not without controversy. His remarks in 2017 which many deemed as racist and anti-semitic caused Disney to sever ties with him. PewDiePie currently resides in Italy.

Tyler Blevins aka Ninja has amassed close to 15 million followers on YouTube alone. Already a Twitch legend, he gained even more notoriety by obtaining the highest streaming record for one video when he teamed up with famous musical artist, Drake to play Fortnite – garnering over 600,000 concurrent viewers. Ninja is located in Illinois.

Mark (real name: Mark Fischbach) isn’t just an ordinary gaming influencer who streams his matches to his 20 million YouTube subscribers. He also provides some funny commentary and incorporates creative sketches in his videos. He originally aspired to be a voiceover actor and even created an animated series called “Markiplier Books”. His fan base has given itself the name (the ‘Markiplites’), but Mark, himself, is not too fond of it, opting instead for ‘Markiplier’s Heroes’. Just like some other HUGE gamers, Mark does his fair share of donating back to charities as well.